Falsehoods repeated without research.
Though Chrysler had chosen rear wheel drive before the merger, hooking up with Mercedes provided existing technologies and parts, including the A580 electronic automatic, and Mercedes’ stability control, steering, rear suspensions, electronics, and seats; the traction and stabilitycontrol systems, axles, wireharnesses, five speed automatic transmissions, steering columns, and some other components were shared with Mercedes(Wolfgang Bernhard claimed 20% of the Magnum’s components were shared with Mercedes).
AutoWeek’s Mark Vaughn quoted chief engineer Burke Brown as saying that while Mercedes provided many components, “few parts are straight out the Benz bin.” He cited the front suspension as having a lower roll center and wider track, for example.
And for that matter, they have gone to great lengths to replace all the MB parts after Daimler got rid of them.

Did you even READ the article? I agree that you cannot easily weld aluminum to steel, so I get that. But they DID go back to the drawing board after finding the trucks NEEDED these extra protective bars. And since the single cab does not have these extra bars, I am curious how it compares to the single cab Dodge, Chevy, and Toyota...

"IIHS says it comes down to four protective steel bars that Ford installed on the SuperCrew that are left off the SuperCab. The tubular bars, welded to the frame and placed in the front wheel wells, also are missing from regular cab F-150s."
So the correction was to do the same thing they did to the SuperCrew.
They must have thought the smaller configurations would weigh enough less that they wouldn't be necessary. That's why they have these tests. Good thing they corrected it and brought the safety of not just the SCrew but of the smaller cabs up to a high standard.
exactly. people keep crowing about how strong the aluminum Ford is, when really steel came to the rescue. what exactly IS military grade, anyhow?